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Evolve into the digital age with a hybrid solution.

analogue to digital CCTV Systems upgrade

Evolving from Analogue

From helping law enforcement prevent crime to encouraging economic growth, your Public Access Space CCTV System is a vital pillar in the development of your town centre.

Managing the transition from a high-quality, reliable analogue system to a fully digital solution is a multi-faceted endeavour, where small decisions can often have large consequences to the future viability of the scheme.

With financial pressures typically being an issue for local authorities, we have worked with Community Safety Officers across the UK to balance both the risk and budgetary implications of moving from an analogue system and arrived at a Hybrid solution that utilises the best of a new IP network, Wireless infrastructure and private fibre optic networks.

Through careful planning, this strategy offers an expandable alternative, along with a resilient network that delivers images of comparable quality to the existing analogue system, setting you on your path to a fully digital future.

Find out more about how we have helped Local Authorities make cost savings and a smooth transition through our Evolution Plan below.

Stage 1: Mapping the Evolution

The first step, before making any decisions on the future of the CCTV System, is to gain a full understanding of what you want to achieve in the short, medium and longer term.

It is recommended that the migration from analogue to IP be undertaken in a considered and controlled manner, looking at existing IP infrastructure (schools, council offices, depots etc.) then mapping existing cameras locations onto the existing IP infrastructure as a starting point.

At this stage, our Design Engineers will work closely with your IT department to produce a map of your camera locations plotted against your buildings where council IT networks already exist. It may then be possible to transfer some of your cameras from the Analogue circuits to your own IT networks. This may require some upgrading of the existing networks, but the cost of this would be off-set against the savings from cancelling some of your analogue circuits.

Without this initial planning, even short-term objectives can detrimentally affect medium- or long-term goals. Our process here would be to work with your IT department to understand their plans to expand their footprint, and discuss ways of working together to migrate CCTV Transmission efficiently.

We recommend appointing a Technical Design Authority (TDA) to oversee all additions or changes to the system to ensure they do not introduce unforeseen technical issues is advisable at this stage.

Stage 2: Evolving the IP Control System

The next logical step in the Evolution Plan should include the migration of the existing analogue matrix to a newer ‘Virtual-Matrix’ (IP Based) arrangement, especially when considering that a large percentage of the existing equipment is likely to be regarded as ‘end-of-life’ by the manufacturers, with the inherent risk of future support becoming more and more difficult to guarantee.

The Matrix typically enables a number of vital functions in the system from full cross-point switching, the ‘Pushing’ of images to remote locations such as Police Stations, remote access to the CCTV system (such as Police Station, Car Parks etc.) and most importantly Telemetry Control / PTZ control for the PTZ Camera.

The system needs to be able to monitor and control newer technology IP / HD Cameras and a variety of new recording systems, as well as remotely managing disparate CCTV systems from applications such as remote council buildings or even other Local Authority PAS CCTV Schemes.

This evolution also requires the addition of a new Video Management System (VMS) or Graphic User Interface (GUI System) which can possibly control not only the existing analogue cameras and other systems, but a Control System which is scalable, flexible, expandable and can integrate with as much of the existing equipment as possible.

Stage 3: Evolving Your Vision

The move from analogue to IP should also be considered from an image quality perspective, with the next phase seeing a strategic upgrade of cameras covering all Category A security locations across the area.

Analogue images over fibre optic circuits are currently superior to IP cameras over lower bandwidth digital networks, so a factor for consideration should also be the purpose of the cameras being considered for conversion - especially in a town centre / public access space environment, where live, pro-active CCTV monitoring is taking place.

This stage typically sees all Category A security locations being replaced by the latest IP models and the best remaining analogue units being redeployed to areas of a lower security concern.

Stage 4: From Hybrid to full Digital

Over time, the plan would be to evolve the scheme into a fully digital system. The execution of this would again be on a controlled and strategic basis to manage risk, resources and budget.

The existing analogue infrastructure is now ‘old technology’ and so, unfortunately, it will become increasingly difficult to find system integrators capable of maintaining the old equipment, probably resulting in premature failure.

There are many advantages associated with upgrading to high bandwidth IP transmission, the main advantages are:

Flexibility of implementation
Portability
Ease of integration with other equipment and systems
Resilience
Disaster Recovery / Control Room Re-location
IP CCTV Cameras offer future-proof technology – IP cameras can easily be upgraded from static cameras to functional cameras and can be easily re-located or re-deployed if necessary.

Making the first step

As technical experts in the field of integrated electronic security systems, we have worked in partnership with Community Safety Officers across the UK to carefully design and implement a Hybrid system that derives maximum benefit from the existing assets, whilst putting the infrastructure in place for a fully digital future.

Our Analogue to Digital Evolution Plan ensures a smooth, future proof pathway for County Borough Councils, with achievable investment milestones that progress their system to a hybrid solution, before finally transitioning to fully digital operation.

If you would like a initial chat to discuss how we an help you evolve your CCTV scheme then please contact us on 01443 405052 or email us at info@cdssystems.co.uk

Read more about the work we have done with other local authorities to support their evolution from analogue to digital.

https://cdssystems.co.uk/rhondda-town-centre-cctv-project/